If you were a GM, how would you handle loot?

[Icebear]

When I raided, we used a mix of rolling and loot council.
We rolled for the items, and the highest roller would win.
But if some one really (like really REALLY) needs the item, or have come to every full raid for that 1 item, it will be given, regardless of rolls.

[Nahela]

I am a guild leader of a 25m heroic raiding guild, a guild that I've been running for 7 years (as of Sunday!). We switched to Loot Council from DKP back in T6 and never looked back.

We track all loot publicly using our old DKP page, so there's a level of transparency to the whole system. Our council is currently comprised of 5 people, which is really the minimum I'd recommend, and preferably odd numbered for less split votes (though always have a tiebreaker system).

When deciding loot we look at the following criteria: severity of upgrade, player performance, player dedication/seniority, date of last loot, total loot. The downside here is that loot distribution on new bosses with heavily-desired loot tables can be time consuming. The big upside is the community that it fosters. Raiders, especially veterans, quite often will discuss loot amongst their peers as well as providing us a ton of information on how a particular piece fits into their current setup. A loot council system also promotes good play, something that's important for all raiding guilds.

However, it's not for every guild and it requires a level of maturity & dedication that not every guild has.

[Deleted]

We simply roll N or G. If it's a better upgrade for another person then it's normally discussed between the two people and passed on.

Works well for us, but then we are a mature guild without drama/children.

[Navoan]

I use a different system in my guild (cur 3/13 HC) 10man. We use a loot counter + rolls + common sense/loot council.

Essentially when someone gets a piece of loot they get +1 to a 'counter'. If two people roll, whoever has a lower count gets the item (Regardless of what was actually rolled by the people interseted in the item). If two people roll for the same item and they both have the same counter, whoever wins the roll (used to 'show interest' in said item) wins the item.

There is a council part to this, simply in respect to the best upgrade. Usually whoever rolls talks to the other people who rolled and they work out who it's the best upgrade for, regardless, whoever actually gets the item gets +1 and thus less prio on the next drop.


The reason this system works so well for us is because we're not loot oriented. It's all about the kills and having fun, people don't care if they get loot (to a certain respect :P) as long as it's used in the raid as a whole it'll help us.


Another reason it's good, from my PoV as GM/RL, is because it can be used as punishment. If someone is late back from a break... +1. If someone misses a raid without prior notice (we require 100% attendance) then +3. It's a great deterrence and after a while people just show up and stop being late If, during an encounter, there is one mechanic people are failing too and they've had enough time to learn, give them an incentive to not fuck up, "Anyone dying to X from now on... +1". Job done.

- Just wondering, what do you guys think of this system, has worked extremely well for us for the past few years.

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention... is that this system can be extremely fast. If an item is a decent upgrade for two people, both roll and it is decided within seconds via loot counter who gets the item, no fuss and no mess.

[Vaelorian]

Having been a guildmaster for 7 years...

At first we were a Karazhan guild trying to get the numbers high enough for 25 man raiding. During this period and throughout TBC, we used a form of Lootcouncil. What happend was - each class was a group in itself and from each class would be selected (amongst themselves) who would have a chance to "roll" on loot. So when a tier token dropped - we had 3 players rolling for it. Once a player had won, he would not be selected again until his/her gear would be lesser then or equal to the others of his class. This system worked very very well until the end of TBC. The guild transferred to a new server and not everyone that was in the guild came along. So at that moment we lost "trust" in eachother (mainly the new recruits didn't get the trust the same way like we had it in the former group). So we invented ARP. ARP is based on DKP but more towards attendance and being in the raid then actually killing stuff. Sure killing stuff was rewarded too. Especially when it was a new kill. Farm kills were not really worth much. So this made the guild want to come along for progress runs.

In fact at some point during WOTLK people stopped showing up for farm runs lol. They rather showed up for progress runs. Well they didn't stop showing but you could notice that people had others things to do more often then during progress runs. While the ARP (points) difference wasn't THAT big unless we actually killed the boss for the first time.

We had this system permanently since then. It worked very very well. \

In MoP we returned to "Lootcouncil" as we had it before sortoff. This was easier to manage. The only thing that we need to sort was attendance. If your attendance was too low or far lower then the others, you would be skipped on loot.

This system works fine too. Lootcouncil works best when you have a lot of friends and with 10 people that isn't much of an issue.

[Deleted]

Was GM for a very casual raiding guild during T14. (Extensive experience, right??)

We just rolled for gear. Ms > Os > DE. If pugs, the DE'd blood spirit would get raid rolled. If no pugs, it got stashed in GB.

[Kaleredar]

They must sing for their loot.

[Hyve]

Loot Council. Years ago I used to hate Loot Council, and I always worked with EP/GP as our Loot System. It worked fine, but as with all numerical systems like that, the result is set in stone, there is no way without breaking the system to reward someone else, despite their PR (Priority Rating = EP / GP).

Loot Council is great, as our guild uses it with a combination of rolls. People roll to show an interest for the item, the council, which is generally the whole raid team then decides who it should go to. If it is an equal upgrade, or we can't reach a decision, we use the roll that they did to decide.

There is sometimes a little drama, but we've been around long enough to know it isn't all about loot, as within a few months, or weeks even, we won't care about the item.

[Verain]

Well, we aren't heroic this tier (yet), but we should be soon enough.

We've been using EPGP since Nax. It's generally good at getting the loot out properly, but it's had a few issues. We loot council legendaries.


EPGP has the nice benefit of allowing the raiders to participate in their gearing by pooling or spending, without over-rewarding pooling (a problem with some of the older systems). It also prevents some of the hurt feelings that happen with loot council.

[khalltusk]

If I was GM again i'd do free for all, let the quickest fingers win!

In all seriousness when I did 10man raiding with my friends we just had roll on but we discussed among our selves. I often passed if it was a sidegrade or someone needed it more than me.

[Reyzzz]

Loot council if you can trust the ones that sit on it. Like in my case, we "use" it but I have only got 3 items last 5 resets. And before you ask if I have spoken up, I haven't, because 1) I don't raid solely for loot 2) I hate drama that follows.

If I got to choose loot distribution method, I would choose the one you get points based on attendance, and then you use those points to buy items, and you lose big % of your points every time you use them.

[slavrix]

Kill points with a silent bid system.

the person who is willing to spend the most on the item gets it for the 2nd highest bid +1. this number is then deducted from their kill points.

also, points can be awarded for doing more then just killing stuff. farming for the guild also awards points, but to a lesser degree obviously.

those that contribute the most, get more this way.

though when it comes to new content, tanks get priority on teir tokens. as this helps the whoole raid

[Sevyvia]

10man, loot council (Loot dictator?). 25man, EPGP or, if you're in one of those rare guilds that's full of people there to raid, not get loot: Loot council.

[Krob]

i dont like the DKP system or any other system that allows players to cheat by "saving up". Loot council is too extreme on the other side, to work it requires highly knowledgeable members of the council and trust in them.

If i was to decide on a loot system, it would have to take in consideration (all with the same importance):
- attendance %
- ilvl
- loot received
- reset these values after 7 days.

a coefficient of ilvl * (loot received in 7 days + 1) / attendance % should provide a number that indicates how much it costs the next item given to that player for the guild.

example:
player A has 100% attendance, 500 ilvl and received 2 piece of loot. Next item cost = 500 * 3 / 1 = 1500.
player B has 50% attendance, 495 ilvl and received 1 piece of loot. Next item cost = 495 * 2 / 0.5 = 1980.

which means giving loot to A benefits more the guild because the "cost of the loot" is lower.

[Airwaves]

When i used help run a guild (years ago now) we used to give loot out to what ever benefits the raid the most not what benefits a person most. Raiding is a team* effort and loot is for the team. So what ever helps the raid the most gets the upgrade.

*We had almost 100% attendance from the whole team so we never had to worry about it.

[Reyzzz]

i dont like the DKP system or any other system that allows players to cheat by "saving up".

Easily solved by having relatively low cap on points.

[Nessus]

Council or officer loot is best for progressing guilds.

[Deleted]

We use a mix of loot council/common sense
Who has the worst piece, to who is it the biggest upgrade, is it BiS or just a sidegrade?

[shocktopuslol]

if it was a 10 man guild i would just decide myself who to give the loot to, i like to think i am pretty fair and have good judgement when it comes to something like that.
25 man i would go with EPGP, it seemed to work pretty well when i was in a guild that used it.

[NatePsy]

Loot council providing the people in said council are fair and very much against favoritism, also doesn't hurt to make sure they have no grudges against players. Serious guild I was in before had one dickhead with a grudge against me while being in the council and thought it was funny to give an axe that was close to BiS, to a player who used it for Offspec. Then there's DKP, it has it's flaws and all but atleast it's handled by a system rather than select individuals.